Three for Three: 100% of Delaware’s Democratic Candidates for Statewide Executive Office are Women

Kelly Dittmar

Gender Watch 2018From March to December 2018, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation (BLFF) and the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) partnered to offer Gender Watch 2018, which tracked, analyzed, and illuminated gender dynamics in the 2018 midterm elections. With the help of expert scholars and practitioners, Gender Watch 2018 furthered public understanding of how gender influences candidate strategy, voter engagement and expectations, media coverage, and electoral outcomes in campaigns. The blog below was written for Gender Watch 2018, as part of our collective effort to raise questions, suggest answers, and complicate popular discussions about gender’s role U.S. elections.

 

Primaries were held on Thursday in Delaware. Full results, including candidate lists, summaries, and historical comparisons, are available via the Center for American Women and Politics’ (CAWP) Election Watch page.

U.S. Senate

Kerri Evelyn Harris (D) was unsuccessful in her primary challenge incumbent Senator Tom Carper (D). No woman has ever represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate.

U.S. House

Incumbent Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (D), who became the first woman to represent Delaware in Congress in 2017, was unopposed in her bid for the Democratic nomination. She is strongly favored to win re-election this fall.

Statewide Elected Executive Office

Currently, Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long (D) is the only woman among six statewide elected executive officeholders in Delaware. In 2018, 3 of 6 (50%) major-party nominees for statewide executive offices in Delaware are women, including 3 of 3 (100%) Democratic nominees and 0 of 3 (0%) Republican nominees. Three statewide executive offices – governor, lieutenant governor, and commissioner of insurance, are not up for re-election this year.

  • Kathy Jennings won the Democratic nomination for attorney general. If successful this fall, she will become the first Democratic woman to serve as Delaware’s attorney general.
  • Kathy McGuinness won the Democratic nomination for state auditor. If successful this fall, she will be the first woman to serve as Delaware’s state auditor.
  • Colleen Davis was unopposed in her bid for the Democratic nomination for state treasurer. She will challenge incumbent State Treasurer Ken Simpler in November.
Kelly Dittmar headshot

Kelly Dittmar

Kelly Dittmar is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers–Camden and Director of Research and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She is the co-author of A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Perspectives on Why Their Representation Matters (Oxford University Press, 2018) (with Kira Sanbonmatsu and Susan J. Carroll) and author of Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns (Temple University Press, 2015).

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